The 9:20 beaver

The 9:20 beaver Image by Steve took it Our plan was to get up, have a quick breakfast, tear down camp and get an early start on the day. Ahead of us was a difficult but scenic 13 mile, 4 portage leg of our canoe trip that we had mapped out around the campfire the

The 9:20 beaverImage by Steve took it Our plan was to get up, have a quick breakfast, tear down camp and get an early start on the day. Ahead of us was a difficult but scenic 13 mile, 4 portage leg of our canoe trip that we had mapped out around the campfire the night before. We woke at dawn, right on schedule. Boiling water, brewing coffee and frying up a skillet of hash brown potatoes and eggs also went off without a hitch. The plan wasn’t really threatened until we wandered down to the edge of our gorgeous lake and sat down for breakfast on a perfectly-situated rock in a warm sunbeam. Somehow that hard rock with a view just got more and more comfortable.

While we continued to discuss the difficult task ahead, and the agreed upon need to get an early start, a beaver silently swam by hauling freshly chewed branches to his home on a small island. We talked and laughed and admired the beaver’s energy and the gorgeous day long after the coffee was finished and the Grey-Jays and chipmunks had picked over the potato scraps.

We had almost used up the extra 20 minutes we had given ourselves to watch the slowly rising sun burn the fog off the glassy water, when the beaver swam back from the island empty handed. And only 20 minutes later we spotted him again pushing another load of freshly cut branches to the island by the exact same route. Fascinated, we made time in our grueling schedule to more closely study his efforts. We could practically set our watches to his energetic construction timeline. He eagerly swam back and forth and back and forth at almost exact twenty minute intervals. We were impressed that he could keep up his clock-work like routine for an hour, and then two. By our close observation, he did not deviate even once from his disciplined, steady work schedule until well after lunch.